personnel

UK /pɜː.səˈnɛl/ US /pɝ.səˈnɛl/ Syllables: per-son-nel

Pronunciation

Noun B2 Upper-intermediate Formal

The people employed by an organization, or the department that manages them.

Personnel means the people who work for an organization, such as a company, a hospital or the army. It is a group word, so it often takes a plural verb: all personnel are asked to sign in. It can also mean the department that deals with hiring and employee records, now more often called human resources. You will see the word in notices, job descriptions and official reports. In everyday talk, people usually say staff or employees. The spelling needs care: personnel ends with a double n, and the stress falls on the last syllable, per-son-NEL. Do not confuse it with personal, which describes something that belongs to one person.

"All personnel must complete the safety training."

Meanings

The people employed by an organization, taken as a group.
The department of an organization that handles hiring, records and employee matters.

Example sentences

"All personnel must wear a badge at work."

Level B2, Meaning 1
"The hospital is short of trained personnel."

Level B2, Meaning 1
"She works in the personnel office."

Level B2, Meaning 2
"Military personnel were sent to help after the storm."

Level B2, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Synonyms

staff employees

Look-alikes and common mistakes

personal : Personal means belonging to one person. Personnel means the people who work for an organization. Personal has one n at the end, personnel has two.
staff : Staff means almost the same and is the everyday word. Personnel sounds more formal and official.

Word family and forms

personal person personnel department

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "personnel".

military personnel
medical personnel
trained personnel
personnel file
personnel carrier
personnel department

Origin

Personnel was borrowed from French, where it began as an adjective meaning personal and came to be used as a noun for a group of people. The French word goes back to Late Latin personalis. English took it in the early 1800s, so personnel and personal are doublets: two words with one source that arrived by different routes.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Count the n letters. Personnel has two, and it is the one about a whole group of people.

Test yourself

Which word fits the gap? "All _____ must wear a badge at work."

Answer: personnel

In your own words, what does "personnel" mean?